Chapter 1
Dynalya
Out of all the things Dyna could have expected to hear today, learning that she was married was not one of them. The icy wind swept over her, howling over the rocky cliff. She sat stiff and frozen on the ground, an incoherent hum echoing Cassiel’s confession in her mind.
We are Blood Bonded.
He’d said many things to her during their journey. Some harsh, some arrogant, some surprisingly kind, but this jest fell flat.
An involuntary bark of laughter left her, anyway. “What?”
He must be If it were true, she supposed it would make sense why he would grow close to her, only to pull away. Not only that, but to marry someone without their consent and to keep it a secret…
Cassiel didn’t laugh. His silver eyes set, upon a striking face, were glassy and uncertain, lacking their usual steel edge. The lump in his throat bobbed repeatedly and sweat shone on his forehead. His black wings twitched behind him, betraying his lack of composure. Dyna’s smile faded away.
He was serious.
Her vision tunneled, pulling her from reality. Cassiel said something, but the muffled words didn’t connect in her head where everything had gone quiet again, a deep abyss overtaking her comprehension. The autumn breeze blew over the cliff where they sat together, slipping through the space between them. It brushed against her lips that were a mere inch from his—moments away from kissing.
Dyna gasped softly and jerked away. Cassiel let her go. His hands slipped from hers, and his wings fell away, exposing her to the bitter chill. He wore a carefully indifferent expression, but a melee of his apprehension buzzed through her, squeezing her chest. She laid a hand over her heart, at last realizing what was different about it.
Since the night of the full moon, a connection had forged between her and Cassiel. Wherever he went, his presence, his touch, it hovered on her skin. And she developed the odd ability to sense what he was feeling. She thought it had all been her imagination. Until he confessed what he’d been keeping from her.
“Dyna,” Cassiel called her name tentatively. “Say something.”
The sunrise highlighted the sharp planes of his jaw and glossy feathers. The unearthly glow exuding from his skin matched the one coming from hers. A recent change, she realized, appeared after that night.
“What should I say to this?” she asked incredulously.
“If you will give me leave to explain—”
“Then explain,” she said, a tad sharply.
He exhaled and ran a hand through his ink-black hair, shaking his head. The wind nearly stole away his faint voice. “The Other … you were gravely wounded, and I had no recourse but to heal you.”
Reaching for her shoulder, flashes of the full moon night rushed through Dyna’s memories: Zev turning into the Other, the horrid pain of his teeth crushing her collarbone and dragging her away. He had nearly torn her apart, but now her skin was as soft as satin beneath her fingers. Rendered flawless by the power of Cassiel’s divine blood.
“You used your blood to heal me,” she murmured.
He swallowed, his throat bobbing. “That was my intention, but in my rush to save you, we … exchanged blood instead.”
Exchanged blood.
That’s when everything changed. And she’d been too stupid to notice. Every touch of his left a tingle on her skin, a source of warmth and electrical energy. She assumed it was because of his Soul Searching ability, but it was because he’d bonded them.
“Once a Celestial chooses a life-mate, they are wed with a binding of blood,”King Yoel had explained when she first heard the term Blood Bond.“It connects their souls eternally until they are torn from each other at death.”
God of Urn.
Warmth rushed to her cheeks. He had bonded them, thenkeptit from her all this time. Everything she felt toward him was bare for him to see—when she looked at him, thought of him, touched him. He must have known every silly pining she felt, because he could feel her emotions as she could feel his. Tears of humiliation rushed to her eyes.
Had everything between them also been a lie? A few minutes ago, he had held her in his arms, inches away from kissing her. Had he only courted the idea because of the bond? When he purchased clothing and shoes for her, had it been out of obligation? Did he truly care for her at all?
“Why did you keep this from me?”
Cassiel’s expression grew guarded, and he glanced away. “I never meant for this to happen. If I could undo the bond, I would.”
There was a twisting in her chest, as if her heart had withered and shriveled to nothing.
